Man convicted of murder, manslaughter for double slaying

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SAN ANTONIO — Doran James Walker was in a panicked retreat — fearful for his and his younger brother's life — when he shot three men, killing two, last year at a used car lot, his attorneys argued.

Jurors, however, rejected the self-defense claim Thursday.

Walker, 28, was found guilty of one count of murder, one count of manslaughter and one count of aggravated assault after roughly 10 hours of deliberations that spanned two days.

Prosecutors had sought two murder convictions, but the jury instead opted for the lesser manslaughter charge for one of the counts.

Jurors began deliberating his punishment soon after the guilty verdicts were announced in the 187th state District Court. The group is expected to continue punishment deliberations Friday. Walker faces up to life in prison for the murder charge and 20 years each for the other convictions.

“He's not a mediator. He's a murderer,” Assistant District Attorney Kenyata Rico said during closing arguments Wednesday. “This was a personal vendetta.”

The defendant and brother Donderick Renee Walker, 23, were arrested in New Orleans less than a week after the July 10, 2012, slayings of Larry Williams, 21, and Stephan Kareem McGowan, 28, at King's Used Cars lot.

Alvin Mathis, the grandfather of Williams and McGowan, was shot in the back but survived to testify against the defendant last week.

Doran Walker declined to testify during his trial, but jurors heard him sobbing in a recorded interview with Bexar County investigators that was played for jurors.

“He was gonna kill my brother,” he repeatedly said.

The brothers believed Williams had participated in a June 2012 burglary of their apartment in which $2,200 and a TV went missing, defense attorney Ed Camera said.

The defendant's brother bought a handgun a day before the shooting. Wanting to be a peacekeeper, Doran Walker took the gun from his brother — absentmindedly putting it in his pocket — moments before they met with Williams to discuss the burglary, the defense said.

He never intended to use it, but then Williams approached him with his own gun, taunting him by repeating, “Let's get it poppin',” over and over, Camera said.

As the brothers ran, Doran Walker fired 13 rounds. Ten of those shots struck Williams and the others.

“That's not easy to do without calculated, purposeful aiming and shooting,” prosecutor David Lunan said.

Lunan pointed out that earlier in the police interview, before claiming self defense, the defendant stated more than 40 times that he had nothing to do with the shootings.

Donderick Renee Walker reached a plea agreement days before his brother's trial began, agreeing to serve three concurrent 15-year sentences for aggravated assault instead of murder. He testified for the defense.